No Houston for me

My coach and I have finally agreed on some music for a bronze program. I didn't realize it was going to be so difficult because I don't really care, but it was. I just need this program for testing and maybe a competition or two so it's really not that big of a deal to me. I hope to be skating silver ASAP anyway. But whatevs. Anyway, because of all this, I won't be going to the Houston Fall Invitational again this year. My next competition will be the Star of Texas adult competition in January. I went to this a couple years ago and it was really great to be able to compete where there were no little kids running around being annoying.
In testing news I took my pre-bronze freeskate and passed it surprise, surprise. I skated awfully during the test, but it was still fine. My 2 foot spin stunk, but since that's the first and last time I'll ever do one they didn't care. I'm still working on my pre-juvenile moves and I think I may be ready to test those in a couple of months. We put the three turns on the pattern and that's really the only thing holding me back. Once I take those I can then take my bronze test and I'll finally be on track. I'm afraid it's going to take years to get those juvenile moves, though.
I had a breakthrough on my camel spin this past week. I've always had a so-so camel. Good enough to count as one, but it was slow. Something happened Wednesday night and I figured it out. I managed to repeat the feat at my lesson Thursday morning and my coach was very impressed. Then she tried to fix my entrance and now I can't do it anymore. :) Oh well, I'm sure I just need to work on it some more.
Okay, I think that's it for now. Off to take a nap, I just got home from a weekend-long bachelorette party and I'm exhausted.

Nothing new

So I haven't posted because nothing exciting has happened. I'm still working on my pre-juv moves. Hoping to test those early in the fall or the end of the summer. We're going to get my bronze test program together in the couple weeks. I can't test that till after I pass pre-juv moves (and PB free skate :-p), so I'm not too worried about it right now. Other than that I'm just enjoying my summer and working on drill team stuff. We went to officer camp last week and my girls did great. I was very proud. I was a little irritated at the lack of recognition they got, but that's American Dance/Drill Team for you. You're most important if your director is on staff. So anyway, I think it should be a good year. Our officers are working together very well and they are very talented.

I think I'll set a goal of posting once a month and then see if I can improve on that sometime.
Let's see what's happened since the last time I posted. I took and passed my preliminary MITF. I am currently working on my pre-juvenile moves. They are coming along although I am having some blade issues. I pronate because I have flat feet, and I didn't get that taken care of when I bought the boots I currently have. Soooo...this requires alot of blade fixing to try to minimize the problem. I had no idea it was so intricate. Next time I'm getting custom boots to take care of these problems. Too bad that will probably be a year or so from now.
I'm finally going to test my pre-bronze freeskate. My problem hasn't been that I'm not ready, but instead that I had to pass preliminary moves before I could take it. I think I'm going to have to set some goals to get some high scores on it.
We're going to put together a bronze program for Skate Houston and testing. It'll be my first program in about a year, so I'm excited.
Coach S is working on cleaning up my single jumps. Not sure when/if we'll get to doubles/axel. She's got some leg issues, so getting me in a harness is not an option. I'm not sure where we'll go with that, I'm sure it's something we'll discuss this summer.

Okay, now some summer skating goals:
- skate at least 5 hours a week even when I'm out of town.
- get my camel/sit spin consistent and nice
- get my backspin so it doesn't suck
- get my pre-juvenile moves ready to test.
- get all of my singles, nice, pretty, and big

I think that's it. In non-skating news I think I'm getting a new car! I'm not sure when because we may wait for the 2009s, but I'm gonna get a honda civic coupe. I'm very excited. :)

Long time no talk

Well..I'm sure by now nobody reads this anymore. It has been months since I last posted. I thought I'd just do a quick update. I have in fact been skating, but I've also been very busy with the drill team at school.
So first the skating news. I retook and passed my preliminary moves with flying colors. I'm currently working on my pre-juvenile moves which I have to pass before I can take my bronze freeskate. I haven't been doing any competing since the houston fall invitational last year. My first competition back is going to be the Bluebonnet open here in Austin. I'll still be skating bronze (and probably will for a good while). I started working on an axel sort of. I only get to have a lesson where we work on it when I have a lesson with my sister. Which is never. I'm just forcing myself to attempt them and get more comfortable with them. Then when I have a chance with her we get on the harness. I need to get better about the off-ice. The wierd thing is I used to be able to do them off-ice no problem, but since I've started actually working on them on-ice I can't do them off anymore. Humph.
In other news my drill team went to competition this year and the officers won the lyrical category with the dance I choreographed! I was so proud. I hope we can improve upon our competition performance next year. It's going to take a little more dedication, though and I feel like we're still lacking on that. Spring show was last weekend and boy am I glad it's over. It went off pretty well. I'm not 100% happy with the way they performed. They just have a problem with not taking any of these things serious enough. They talk about wanting a bigger team and things like that, but they don't understand that you have to be good for (good) people to want to be on the team, and that takes hard work, dedication, and taking performances seriously. There are some very talented dancers on the team, I just wish they would...you guessed it...take the team more seriously. I'm excited about next year, though. Tryouts are next week...I hope we get alot of girls trying out.
Well...I can't think of anything else right now. I'm going home for my high schools spring show this weekend. It's the first one in probably 8 or so years for me, but this is going to be my director's last official year, so I'd like to go see her last show. Anyway, that's it for real.

First Lesson

Well, after I 4 month break, I'm getting back on the ice. I have to. I had my first lesson today with a new coach. Right now we're just working on Moves which means I still need to try to get in a freeskate lesson with my sister.
This morning we worked on those preliminary moves that I failed. She explained what was wrong with my patterns on the backwards crossovers to outside edges. Hopefully I can fix that. They definitely felt better once I realized what I was supposed to be doing. Then we worked on my alternating threes. She's having me change the way I check out of my three turn. Finally we worked on power-3's. Fixed the pattern a little bit there. Overall she said my biggest problem is my stiff knees (obviously) and my upper-body.

avoidance

I haven't skated since Houston. Not once. Right after Houston I needed a break because of school just starting and I've been working very hard. Since then, though, I've pretty much just been avoiding skating all together. I miss it terribly, but I was so frustrated with everything I just need to make some decisions. I've had all these goals and I don't feel like I'm anywhere near reaching them. Or even getting closer. My sister hasn't been able to commit to a time for a lesson for me. Her afternoon sessions are completely booked and she's not doing morning sessions. Even the session that I could count on for her last year she has booked another student on. So I'm not sure what to do. I'm kind of leaving it up to her. If she wants to fit me in, then she will. I've been feeling for a long time like I haven't been improving like I feel I should/could and I feel like that's because I don't have consistent lessons. It is indescribably frustrating to watch all these kids working on their axels when I was able to do my singles consistently way before they could. I finally got one lesson on the harness this summer, but that was only after I broke down crying on a freestyle. Also, me failing that test was related to a lack of coaching. I did one of my patterns wrong and I had no idea. I felt good about it until I skated over to my sister and she told me I did it wrong. She had told me two days before the test that I was doing it wrong. I had been doing it that exact way for at least 6 months before that.
So I've got some decisions to make. I feel like the right decision has to be get a new coach, but I've got a few issues with that. One is money. Danny and I are buying a new house, so I just don't feel like I should spend alot of money on coaching right now. The second is my sister. I've really liked having this time we could hang out, and I don't really want to give that up (of course I guess I already have with my not-skating). Everytime I think about this whole situation I cry. So instead...I've just not been thinking about it. :( I don't know what to do, so until I do...I'm not sure I'll be doing any skating.

Houston: The good and the bad

First...the bad. My artistic. I skated pretty well, so that was good, but I placed 4th out of 4 which was very disappointing. I know I wasn't as comfortable with the boa as I should have been, but I still don't understand last place. Now I'm thinking I'm gonna ditch the boa. Or maybe I just need a different artistic.
Second...the good. My freeskate. I skated possibly the best I've skated it in a competition. I didn't hit my camel in the beginning, so that sucked. The only other mistake I made is that I two-footed my loop on my flip-loop. Everything else was fantastic. I rocked my lutz toe-loop which was very exciting since I just added that the other day, and I haven't done much working on lutz combos. My sister said my sit spin was the best she'd ever seen me do.
Overall I felt good about this competition. I skated well, and I had tough competition. I look forward to the Star of Texas adult open in January.